PERFORMING HISTORIES

Performing Diaspora, Migration, Stereotypes

Performing History on Stage with Canada’s National Art Centre’s English Theatre

In 2006 my life changed when I joined The Ark, the first of an annual interdisciplinary collaboration focusing on specific theatres, beginning with that of Elizabethan and Jacobean England, initiated by National Art Centre’s English Theatre artistic director Peter Hinton. The energies in the room inspired a rethinking of my work as a public historian, and as an early modernist, and led to my becoming Company Historian to the English Theatre Company between 2008 and 2012, from productions of Macbeth (2009) to King Lear (2012).

Romeo and Juliet

What do we mean by a “period production”? Usually it means setting a play in the period in which it was written and first performed, in this case Elizabethan England of the 1590s. Shakespeare, however, set the play in Italy of the late middle ages/early Renaissance. Immediately, then, we find ourselves negotiated between two periods and two locations if we are seeking to be “true to the period”. The 2010 production at the National Arts Centre was a period play in several senses: costumes were inspired by Italian artist (and Shakespeare’s contemporary) Caravaggio, it was performed on an Elizabethan thrust-stage with a minimalist set evocative of Elizabethan staging, and the sword-fights referenced the manuals of the 16th century. My task as Company Historian was to share my understanding of the period with the acting company and the creative team.

NAC Study Guide | Ottawa Citizen – April 6, 2010.

King Lear

2012 was a landmark year for the history of theatre in Canada. For the very first time an all-Aboriginal acting company performed an un-adapted King Lear on the main stage of the National Arts Centre. A long-held dream of one of Canada’s greatest actors, August Schellenberg, this production moved Shakespeare’s setting of the play in ancient Britain to his near-contemporary encounters of European-settler culture and indigenous cultures in 17th century North America. As Company Historian I worked with the creative team in researching the period (assisted by Emily Keyes); editing Shakespeare’s text with director Peter Hinton, dramaturge Paula Danckert, and assistant director Lorne Cardinal; and liaising with one of the most remarkable aspects of this unique production, the Four Nations Exchange led by artist and educator Suzanne Keeptwo.

NAC Study Guide by Suzanne Keeptwo (with a little by David Dean)

Vimy

Vern Theisen’s Vimy is one of the most performed plays in the history of Canadian theatre. This was the first joint production between the National Art Centre’s English Theatre and the Great Canadian Theatre Company and was directed by Linda Moore. Opening on Remembrance Day, the play spoke to our own present (the war in Afghanistan) as well as the Great War (the First World War) and to our identity as Canadians. Ashlee Beattie, a research assistant on the project who had deep performance experience playing the role of nurse during the War, worked with the Company on a daily basis, while I focused on analysing the play, the production, and conducting a survey of the audience on how they experienced history on stage. One of my graduate students, Chris Schultz, wrote the study guide for the play. One of the most intriguing events surrounding the production was a roundtable with the playwright Vern Theissen, NAC English Theatre artistic director Peter Hinton, Canadian War Museum historian Tim Cook, and myself on The Theatre of War.

The Survey: Summary Report
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My article focusing on Vimy: Theatre: A Neglected Site of Public History?

Associated Productions

A Christmas Carol
As Company Historian I shared historical evidence and understanding about the world of Dickens, the poor, workhouses and so on with the Company for this 2009 production. You can listen to my conversation with artistic director Peter Hinton:
Hinterview with David Dean, 22 February 2009

Mother Courage and Her Children

Lecturing on the Thirty Years War as well as the period of Nazism during which Brecht wrote the play, this was an intriguing experience because of the realizing of early modern horrors with those of the 20th century and when Canada was at war in Afghanistan.
NAC Study Guide

Macbeth

One of my first encounters with a full production at the English Theatre, this production was set the middle of the 20th century. The witches were child evacuees. It challenged my historian’s understanding of the importance of accuracy.
An Actor among the Historians Page 1 | An Actor among the Historians Page 2

Riel
Rummaging in the warrens of the NAC I came across a number of maquettes or models of the sets for many productions. I chose the set for their 1975 staging of John Coulter’s Riel, one of the landmark productions in the history of Canadian theatre for a 3D rendering. A few years later I had the pleasure of supervising Emily Keyes in her honour’s student project re-imagining the play in light of recent historical scholarship.


Performing History 2015 Lectures and Interviews

Carleton’s History Department is very fortunate to have the Shannon Donation which funds a series of lectures each year. I curated the series for 2015 which focused on Performing History. The series explored the ways in which our understanding of the past is enhanced through performance asking questions such as What does it mean when our histories take alternative forms such as film, theatre, re-enactment, cabaret, and virtual gaming? How does re-staging the past in these ways shape the history that is produced and how audiences experience the past? There were five invited lectures each of which were recorded live and these will be re-posed soon on the IFPH website.

I also interviewed each lecturer on the topic, while one of my students working in the field of performance, Emily Keyes, interviewed me by way of introduction:

• David Dean interviews Bruno Ramirez before his lecture on “Through Images, Words, and Sounds: Filmic Narration and Public History”

• David Dean interviews Vanessa Agnew before her lecture on ”Reenacting Genocide”

• David Dean interviews Lisa Peschel before her lecture on “Theatre and the Holocaust: Recently Rediscovered Scripts from the Terezín/Theresienstadt Ghetto”

• David Dean interviews Maxime Durand before his lecture on “From Dreams to Realities: Performing History in the Assassin’s Creed® Video Game Series”

• David Dean interviews Peter Hinton before his lecture on “Why Shaw Now? A Modern Pygmalion”